Danielle Krage interviews writer, creator, and brand builder John Derevlany. John is an award-winning writer, animator, and showrunner who has written or produced hundreds of hours of TV (including for the Jim Henson Company and LEGO). John has also been a game designer, street artist, investigative journalist and played Crackers the Corporate Crime Fighting Chicken for Michael Moore’s TV Nation!
In this episode John shares learnings from his creative career, and how he now thinks about Super Narrative – his approach to planning a story across multiple media platforms.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Background
02:05 Founding a Comedy Newspaper
03:09 Using Comedy as a Defense Mechanism
04:12 Transition to TV Comedy
05:40 Working with National Lampoon
07:25 Creating Crackers, the Corporate Crime Fighting Chicken
08:47 The Power of Reaction Shots in Comedy
09:56 Transition to Animation and Children's Shows
10:38 The Concept of Super Narrative
15:08 Understanding Super Narrative
16:00 Differentiating Super Narrative from Transmedia
24:02 The Need for Innovation in Hollywood
24:49 Adapting and Pivoting in Creative Projects
25:15 Navigating Humour and Broad Appeal
26:04 Considerations for International Audiences
26:34 Keeping Content Broad and Timeless
27:02 Challenges with Technological Advancements
27:49 Creating Characters and Expanding Worlds
28:18 Using AI for Idea Generation
28:57 Simplifying Stories and Layering Content
29:25 Creating a Multitude of Characters
29:58 The Challenges of Naming Characters
30:25 The Role of AI in Joke Generation
31:26 Using AI as a Tool for Creativity
32:09 The Increasing Speed of Content Production
33:21 The Importance of Trying New Things
34:19 The Uncertainty of the Entertainment Industry
35:28 Take Risks and Embrace Ignorance
36:36 Being Playful and Creative in All Aspects
37:35 Finding Inspiration in Comedy and Entertainment
38:16 John's Website and Projects
40:01 The Resurrection of 'Squish'
41:21 Dealing with Fan Obsession
You can find more about John’s work here:
Videos - https://johnderevlany.com/video-trailers-episodes/
(Including Squish, Legends of Chima, Crackers the Corporate Crime Fighting Chicken, Uke Til U Puke.)
The "Give me a job LEGO” animation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZznS4Y06_Cc
The big, outdoor board game: https://culverland.johnderevlany.com/
You can find the transcript at:
And Danielle’s socials here:
https://twitter.com/daniellekrage
https://www.instagram.com/dekrage
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